"He Chose Her... Then Came Back to Me"
8.5 / 10.0
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"You don't get to hurt me and then make me responsible for how guilty you feel about it."
"Friends don't stand next to you, learn everything about you, and then use it to get close to the one person they know matters."
Aria thought she knew two things for certain: she was going to graduate with her best friend, Iris, by her side, and she was in love with her boyfriend, Liam.
One kiss changed everything. But as the secrets of their "before" come to light, Aria realizes the betrayal didn't start at a party or in a moment of weakness. It started weeks ago, in the conversations she wasn't part of and the moments she wasn't invited to.
Now, Aria has to decide if she can find herself again in the wreckage of the people she trusted most-or if some bridges are meant to be burned
"He Chose Her... Then Came Back to Me" Chapter 1
The music was too loud. Not the kind that made you want to dance just noise, constant and sharp, pressing into Aria's head like it had something to prove. Conversations overlapped, laughter came too quickly, too easily. It felt forced. Like everyone here had agreed to pretend they were having a better time than they actually were.Aria stood just inside the doorway for a moment longer than necessary, scanning faces she barely recognized.
"This is why I don't come to things like this," she muttered under her breath. She only came because Iris insisted. "Ten minutes," Aria had said earlier. "I'm leaving after that." "You say that every time," Iris had told her earlier.
Aria exhaled slowly
She checked her phone. No New messages.
Iris? Gosh, where are you?"
She murmured it more to herself than to anyone else.She moved past the Restroom, weaving through people who didn't notice her and didn't need to. That was fine. She preferred it that way.
"Looking for someone?" She turned at the voice.
Daniel stood there, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a drink. He looked relaxed, like he belonged here in a way she never quite did.
"Iris," Aria said. "Have you seen her?"
He nodded toward the back hallway. "I think she went that way. A few minutes ago."
"Okay. Thanks."
She started to walk past him, but she felt it that pause, that slight shift in his attention. It lingered.
It always did.
"Don't take too long," he added lightly.
Aria didn't respond. She just kept walking.
The hallway was quieter. The music dulled into a low, distant rhythm. The further she went, the more the noise faded, replaced by something else stillness, almost. "Iris?" she called softly. No answer. She frowned slightly and took a few more steps. Then she heard voices.
She stopped. "...we shouldn't be doing this," Liam said. Aria's brows drew together.
There was a pause, and then Iris spoke. Her voice was softer than usual. Careful.
"Then why are you still here?"
Something about that tone made Aria's chest tighten. She didn't think. She just moved.
One step. Then another.And then she saw them.
They weren't just standing close.Liam's hand was resting at Iris's waist. Not awkwardly. Not like he was about to pull away. Like it belonged there.
Aria's steps slowed, but she didn't stop.
She watched as Liam leaned in slightly, his head tilting just enough and then he kissed her.There was no hesitation.
No confusion. Iris kissed him back.
Not like it surprised her. Not like it was a mistake. Like it had already happened before.
Aria stood there, her mind oddly quiet.
For a second, she expected something inside her to react. Anger. Shock. Anything.
But there was just... stillness.
Liam pulled back first, his hand still at Iris's side.
"This isn't right," he said.
Iris let out a soft breath. "Then why does it feel like it is?" he didn't answer, He didn't move away either. Aria shifted her weight, and the slight sound of her shoe against the floor broke the moment.
Both of them turned. Iris's face changed instantly. "Aria-" Liam froze.
Aria looked at them carefully, at the space between them that had suddenly appeared. At Iris's shoulders, tense in a way she had never seen before. At Liam, who looked like he was searching for the right words but hadn't found them yet.
"How long?" Aria asked.
Her voice was calm.Too calm.
Iris shook her head quickly. "It's not what it looks like," Don't," Aria cut in. Iris stopped.
Just answer the question. How long?"
Liam stepped forward slightly. "Aria, listen-"
"No." She met his eyes. "You don't get to explain it." he hesitated.
That was enough to tell her everything.
Aria folded her arms loosely, more to keep her hands steady than anything else.
"I just need to understand something," she said.
Neither of them spoke.
She glanced briefly at Iris, then back at Liam.
"Was I the one you chose..."Her voice didn't shake.
"...or the one you kept until you figured it out?"
Iris looked down immediately.
Liam said nothing.
The silence stretched just long enough to settle the answer in place.
Aria nodded once. "Okay."
"Aria, please-" Iris muttered
Aria turned back slightly.
"I would have rather you told me," she said.
Her tone didn't change. It didn't accuse. It didn't rise. "That's all."
Iris opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
There was nothing she could say that would fix this. They all knew it.
Aria didn't wait for anything else.
She turned and walked back down the hallway.
The music grew louder with each step, swallowing the quiet behind her. By the time she reached the front door, it was like nothing had happened.
Like everything was normal.She stepped outside.
The air was cooler. Quieter.Real.
Aria stood there for a moment, breathing in slowly, letting the noise fade out of her head.
Then she reached into her bag and pulled out her phone.
Liam's name was still at the top of her messages. She stared at it.
At the conversations. The plans. The small, meaningless things that had once felt important.
Her thumb hovered over the screen for a second.
Then she deleted the entire thread.
No hesitation.No second thoughts.
Some things didn't need closure.
They just needed distance.
Continue Reading
"He Chose Her... Then Came Back to Me" of Contents
Chapter 1 Ch. 1Chapter 2 Ch. 2Chapter 3 Ch. 3Chapter 4 Ch. 4Chapter 5 Ch. 5Chapter 6 Ch. 6
Chapter 7 Ch. 7
Chapter 8 Ch. 8
Chapter 9 Ch. 9
Chapter 10 Ch. 10
Chapter 11 Ch. 11
All Chapters all
New Release Novels
8.6
In my past life, the Cerberus strain leaked, turning the world into a blood-soaked hell of rotting flesh and mutated monsters.
I thought my boyfriend Declan and my best friend Hailee would have my back as we fled the quarantine zone.
Instead, when the surging crowd of the infected cornered us, they didn't hesitate.
They shoved me backward into the horde just to buy themselves three seconds to run.
As I fell into the mud, I saw them fleeing without a single backward glance.
"She's dead weight anyway!" Hailee screamed.
"Just keep running, she'll distract them!" Declan yelled back.
I was torn apart, feeling the agonizing tear of rotting teeth sinking into my neck and the hot spray of my own blood.
Before the apocalypse, my greedy uncle had locked away my ten-million-dollar trust fund, leaving me with nothing but a fake boyfriend who only wanted me for my money.
Until my last breath, I couldn't understand how the people I loved most could trade my life for a head start.
Why did I blindly trust them? Why didn't I see through their perfectly choreographed lies?
Opening my eyes again, the stench of decaying flesh vanished, replaced by the sterile smell of my college dorm room.
Hailee and Declan were standing over my bed, faking tears of concern over my meningitis fever.
I was back exactly seven days before the world ended, and my spatial vault ability had come back with me.
This time, I'm extorting my uncle for every cent, hoarding the city's supplies, and leaving them all to rot.
7.8
Alexis signed the divorce papers, leaving her with no assets, no alimony, and just the clothes on her back.
To forget her abusive husband Carlos, she got drunk and bought a high-end gigolo for the night with her last 800 dollars.
But the man she slept with wasn't an escort. He was Jarrett Hughes, a ruthless billionaire CEO.
And while she was gone, her ex-husband was busy destroying her entire life.
Carlos framed her with fake photos of her cheating to justify the penniless divorce.
Then came the real nightmare.
Carlos and her own aunt secretly drained her family's corporate accounts, driving her father to jump off a building.
At the hospital, her grieving mother blamed her for the tragedy, violently attacking her in the ER.
To top it off, her cousin Josie—who was secretly sleeping with Carlos—held her father's ashes hostage.
"Crawl on your knees and pick it up, or the ashes go in the river," Josie sneered, throwing cash into the freezing slush.
Stripped of her marriage, her father, and her dignity, Alexis sat bleeding in the snow.
She couldn't understand why the people she loved most had coordinated such a brutal slaughter against her.
But Carlos and Josie made one fatal mistake.
They didn't know the "gigolo" Alexis had accidentally bought was the most powerful man in New York.
Alexis looked at the towering billionaire standing behind her, a vengeful fire burning in her eyes.
"I need you to get my father's ashes back," she said, pulling him into a kiss right in front of her ex-husband. "I don't care what it takes."
8.7
Ada was eight months pregnant, sitting peacefully in her husband's Manhattan estate, looking at a baby nursery catalog.
Suddenly, her husband's mistress, Jacklyn, walked in, threw an ultrasound photo on the table, and locked the door.
Before Ada could process the betrayal, Jacklyn dragged her to the top of the marble staircase and threw herself backward just as Desmond walked through the front doors.
"She pushed me, Desmond! She tried to kill our baby!"
Desmond looked at Ada with absolute hatred.
He ignored Ada's breaking water and her agonizing screams for help, leaving her to miscarry on the freezing floor while he rushed Jacklyn to the hospital.
He sent Ada to a brutal federal prison for three years, where she was tortured and left with a body covered in horrific scars, mourning the baby she was told died at birth.
When Ada was finally released, Desmond destroyed her cousin's company to force her back to his estate as a lowly maid.
But when Ada saw Jacklyn's three-year-old son, her world stopped.
Right in the center of the little boy's palm was a faint crescent moon birthmark.
It was the exact same mark Ada had kissed on her own lifeless baby's tiny hand before the doctors took his body away.
How did her dead child become Jacklyn's little prince?
Looking at the woman who stole her life and the husband who threw her in hell, Ada clenched her scarred hands and swore she would tear their world apart to get her son back.
8.0
Finley's stepfather gave her a sickening ultimatum: marry her predatory stepbrother Shane tonight, or he would throw her fragile mother out on the street.
To escape this hell, she used a matchmaking agency and hastily married a complete stranger. Garrison Strickland claimed to be an ordinary data analyst making $95,000 a year, driving a beat-up Honda Civic, and needing a wife in name only. They got their marriage license at City Hall that very afternoon.
But when Finley returned home to pack her bags and threw the certificate on the table, her family just laughed. Dozier ordered Shane to drag her into the bedroom to "teach her a lesson" and trap her forever.
"Come on, little sister," Shane crooned, lunging at her. "Don't fight it."
Finley's own mother just stared at the floor, blaming Finley for ruining the family, watching blindly as Shane cornered her.
Terrified and desperate, Finley smashed an ashtray over Shane's head and frantically dialed her new husband's number. Shane snatched the phone, mocking the "imaginary husband" before the line went dead. Finley felt a bottomless despair. Garrison was just a normal guy; he would never risk his life against her violent family. She was completely on her own, waiting for the end.
Suddenly, deafening bangs echoed through the house, and Garrison stepped into the living room radiating a cold, terrifying fury. This supposedly "frugal data analyst" effortlessly snapped Shane's wrist, leveled a ruthless death threat that made Dozier tremble, and whisked Finley away in a waiting Bentley. Looking at the powerful man beside her, Finley's heart raced: just who exactly had she married today?
9.1
June woke up transmigrated into the body of a ruthless billionaire's toxic, disposable wife.
Before she could even process the massive Beverly Hills mansion, a cold system voice announced she had exactly five minutes of lifespan remaining.
To survive, she was forced to bind with the system and strictly maintain the original owner's "brainless, abusive drama queen" persona to earn hours to live.
She was forced to violently slap hot coffee out of a terrified maid's hands and physically spank her manipulative five-year-old stepson.
When she tried to escape this nightmare by throwing divorce papers at her terrifying husband, Isaac Walton, he simply ripped them to shreds.
Every time she tried to be reasonable or show a hint of kindness, the system tortured her with agonizing cardiac pain, cementing her status as the most hated monster in the family.
The most absurd part happened when she threw a hysterical, system-mandated tantrum over a gossip magazine, and Isaac's icy demeanor suddenly melted.
He gently touched her hair, offering the one thing she desperately needed.
"Stop crying. I'll handle it."
Just as a spark of hope ignited in her chest, the system's critical death warning exploded in her skull: accepting his sympathy would instantly deduct thirty days of her life.
To stay alive, June had no choice but to violently slap away the only hand reaching out to save her, forcing herself to play the greedy villain while her husband's gaze turned dangerously dark.
9.0
Isolde woke up in a freezing, ruined stone house with a splitting headache and only five percent of her life signs remaining.
Before she could even process the mechanical system voice in her head, a flood of violent memories slammed into her.
She had transmigrated into the body of a cruel noblewoman who mercilessly tortured her beastmen husbands with a barbed whip.
And right now, she was lying in a pool of her own blood, having been shoved against the stone floor by one of them.
Outside the rickety door, her husbands were coldly discussing her death.
"Just go in and finish her. One stab, and we're free."
"If she hit her head and died on her own, then it's an accident. We walk out of here as free males."
To test if she was faking her sudden amnesia, the snake beastman Dangelo even ground his heavy military boot into her injured hand, waiting for her to snap so he could legally end her.
She was poisoned, freezing, and entirely at the mercy of the men who deeply despised her.
She was bearing the deadly consequences of a monster she never was, with a red system warning of imminent death flashing in her mind.
But they didn't know the new Isolde had awakened a survival system and Life Magic.
She swore a blood oath to the Beast God to buy herself three months of time.
Then, she turned her sights to the dying wolf beastman chained in the shed, deciding to pull him back from hell to become her very first shield.
